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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Clear-Cut Ways to Manage Project Planning If you're a typical project manager, you're probably aware of the importance of planning but may not have the time or expertise to develop a full-blown strategy. Here's a quick and practical guide to applying the disciplines of proven planning practices without the rigor of complex processes. Part of the Project Manager's Spotlight series from Harbor Light Press, this straightforward book offers solutions to real-life planning scenarios. Author Catherine Tomczyk highlights critical components of project planning and equips you with tools, techniques, checklists, and templates you can put to use immediately. By following a realistic case study from start to finish, you'll see how a project manager deals with each task. Ultimately, this book will help you accurately estimate time and resource requirements, enabling you to implement successful projects. Project Manager's Spotlight on Planning teaches you how to * Define project objectives, goals, scope, and requirements * Draft plans to manage risk, quality, and procurement * Build your dream team * Finalize estimates and budgets * Create the project schedule * And much more!
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Seitenzahl: 267
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
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Table of Contents
Cover
About the Author
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
CHAPTER 1: Initiating the Project Plan
Small vs. Large Projects
Initiating a Project
Drafting the Project Plan
Case Study
CHAPTER 2: Defining Project Objectives, Goals, Scope, and Requirements
Setting Project Objectives and Goals
Defining Project Goals
Delineating Scope
Requirements
Case Study
CHAPTER 3: Defining Your Risk Management Plan
Planning for Risk Management
Creating a Risk Response Plan
Case Study
CHAPTER 4: Drafting Your Dream Team
Identifying Your Organization
Team Composition
Defining Skills
Negotiating for Your Team
Team Development Stages
Project Hiring
Defining Team Roles and Responsibilities
Project Communication
Case Study
CHAPTER 5: Finalizing Estimates and Budgets
Building a Bottom-Up Estimate
Performing an Estimate Analysis
Creating the Project Budget
Case Study
CHAPTER 6: Creating the Project Schedule
Introducing Activity Sequencing
Estimating Activity Durations
Defining Activity Precedence
Finish to Finish
Developing the Schedule
Seeing How We Really Do It
Case Study
CHAPTER 7: Defining Your Quality Management Plan
Implementing Quality Processes
Using Quality Resources
Creating a Quality Management Plan
Case Study
CHAPTER 8: Defining the Procurement Management Plan
Purchasing Goods and Services
Knowing When Should You Use an Attorney
Case Study
CHAPTER 9: Formalizing the Plan
Creating the Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda
Facilitating the Kickoff Meeting
Case Study
APPENDIX A: Nine Knowledge Areas Refresher
Project Management Process Groups
Project Management Knowledge Areas
APPENDIX B: Project Planning Templates
Glossary
Index
End User License Agreement
Pages
cover
contents
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Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
List of Illustrations
CHAPTER 2: Defining Project Objectives, Goals, Scope, and Requirements
FIGURE 2.1: Pyramid of project objectives, goals, scope, and requirements
FIGURE 2.2: The triple constraint
CHAPTER 4: Drafting Your Dream Team
FIGURE 4.1: The forming, storming, norming, and performing team stages
FIGURE 4.2: Lines of communication
CHAPTER 5: Finalizing Estimates and Budgets
FIGURE 5.1: Landscape WBS
FIGURE 5.2: Revised landscape WBS
FIGURE 5.3: Numbered landscape WBS
FIGURE 5.4: Task Analysis template
FIGURE 5.5: Landscape Budget template
FIGURE 5.6: Volte budget
CHAPTER 6: Creating the Project Schedule
FIGURE 6.1: Landscape sequence
FIGURE 6.2: Landscape summary report
FIGURE 6.3:
Finish to start
task link
FIGURE 6.4:
Finish to finish
task link
FIGURE 6.5:
Start to start
task link
FIGURE 6.6: Critical path example
FIGURE 6.7: Waterfall schedule
FIGURE 6.8: Resouce histograms
FIGURE 6.9: Levelized resource histogram
FIGURE 6.10: Summary schedule
FIGURE 6.11: Summary schedule with critical path
FIGURE 6.12: Potential project schedule based on reduced duration hardware procurement
CHAPTER 7: Defining Your Quality Management Plan
FIGURE 7.1: Graph
FIGURE 7.2: Flow chart
FIGURE 7.3: Check sheet
FIGURE 7.4: Pareto diagram
FIGURE 7.5: Fishbone analysis diagram
APPENDIX A: Nine Knowledge Areas Refresher
FIGURE A.1: Project process groups
List of Tables
CHAPTER 4: Drafting Your Dream Team
TABLE 4.1: Hard Skill Matrix
TABLE 4.2: Soft Skills Matrix
TABLE 4.3: Team Responsibilities Matrix
TABLE 4.4: Project Team Role Matrix
TABLE 4.5: Activity Communication Plan
TABLE 4.6: Volte Skill Matrix
TABLE 4.7: Volte Roles Matrix
TABLE 4.8: Volte Responsibility Matrix
CHAPTER 6: Creating the Project Schedule
TABLE 6.1: Scheduling Spreadsheet Sample
About the Author
Catherine A. Tomczyk earned a BS in Biology from Nebraska Wesleyan University and BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado. Several years later she completed her Juris Doctorate from the University of Denver and passed the bar exam the following spring.
Her career has followed a similarly convoluted path that lead her from managing projects in a nuclear power plant, to R&D for a medical device company, to building hardware for a computer telephony company, and finally to managing software development projects for First Data Corp.
Ultimately, she realized that project management was her passion, which lead to her to become a PMI Project Manager Professional. This diverse education and experience has enabled her to continually synthesize and apply cross-industry disciplines to improve her ability to successfully manage projects.
Project Manager’s Spotlight on Planning
CATHERINE A. TOMCZYK, PMP
Publisher: Neil Edde
Acquisitions Editor: Heather O’Connor
Developmental Editor: Maureen Adams
Production Editor: Leslie E.H. Light
Technical Editor: Mike Nollet
Copyeditor: Kim Wimpsett
Compositor: Maureen Forys and Jeff Wilson, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Graphic Illustrator: Jeff Wilson, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Proofreaders: Jim Brook, Amy McCarthy, Nancy Riddiough
Indexer: Nancy Guenther
Book Designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Cover Designer and Illustrator: Daniel Ziegler, Ziegler Design
Copyright © 2005 SYBEX Inc., 1151 Marina Village Parkway, Alameda, CA 94501. World rights reserved. No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or reproduced in any way, including but not limited to photocopy, photograph, magnetic, or other record, without the prior agreement and written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Card Number: 2005920771
ISBN: 0-7821-4413-6
SYBEX and the SYBEX logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of SYBEX Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
Harbor Light Press and the Harbor Light Press logo are trademarks of SYBEX, Inc.
TRADEMARKS: SYBEX has attempted throughout this book to distinguish proprietary trademarks from descriptive terms by following the capitalization style used by the manufacturer.
The author and publisher make no representation or warranties of any kind with regard to the completeness or accuracy of the contents herein and accept no liability of any kind including but not limited to performance, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or any losses or damages of any kind caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly from this book.
Manufactured in the United States of America
For Mikayla and Merlin, my biggest supporters
To our valued readers,
Harbor Light Press was created as an imprint of Sybex, Inc. to help business professionals acquire the practical skills and knowledge they need to meet today’s most pressing business challenges.
Our books serve the people responsible for getting the job done—project managers charged with delivering a product on time and under budget; human resource directors faced with a complex array of resource decisions; support staff determined to exceed the goals set for them; and others who recognize that great business plans are only as good as the people who implement and manage them.
Harbor Light Press is committed to publishing authoritative, reliable, yet engaging business books written by authors who are outstanding instructors and experienced business professionals. The goal for all of our books is to connect with our readers, to understand their needs, and to provide them with solutions that they can put to use immediately.
Neil EddePublisherHarbor Light Press
Foreword
The Project Manager’s Spotlight Series is written for those of you who are engaged in projects at the day-to-day level of business. You’re working on projects such as server consolidation, piloting new products in the market-place, or opening a new branch or storefront. These day-to-day projects keep businesses moving forward, carving out market share, meeting strategic goals, and improving the firm’s bottom line. These projects, while vitally important to the companies you work for, are not necessarily multi-million dollar, multi-year projects that require meticulous disciplines and precise methodologies.
The Project Manager’s Spotlight Series shows you the how-to’s of project management on a practical level. These books help you apply solid principles of project management without the rigor. You’ll find tools, tips, and techniques to help you use Project Management Institute–based practices in your small- to medium-sized projects; these are tips you can read over the weekend and be ready and able to apply on Monday morning.
—Kim Heldman
Acknowledgments
I didn’t know how many people it took to create a book. Now I understand why the people at the Oscars can’t keep their thank-you lists short and sweet. Several people supported me in countless ways during the process of writing this book. The following are in order of appearance.
I want to start by thanking Ron Thompson for introducing me to Kim Heldman. Kim was instrumental in creating the idea behind the Spotlight Series and pushing it to fruition. As a writer, sometimes you’re frustrated, confused, and wordless; Kim was always there for help and encouragement, even while she was in bed with pneumonia. She’s a pillar of strength if I ever saw one. Thank you, Kim.
Heather O’Connor gave me the opportunity to write this book. She had a vision of what this book could be and set the stage for the tone and flow of not only this book but also the entire series. Maureen Adams stepped in as developmental editor when Heather went on leave. Maureen demonstrated great project management skills because she had to step into the middle of the project and get up to speed in a short period of time. Maureen helped me convey the message in a logical order with gentle, focused suggestions.
Mike Nollet was the technical editor who kept the terminology consistent throughout the book. His knowledge of the PMBOK was invaluable. Leslie Light, the production editor, was always enthusiastic and calming. She knew when to stand by patiently and when to push the project forward. Leslie’s ideas always added a finishing touch to the book. Kim Wimpsett, the copy editor, is a master at asking the clarifying questions and making suggestions that kept the book flowing. I also want to thank the people at Happenstance Type-O-Rama who turned my rough drawings and templates into the clear figures that grace these pages.
My friends and family were my emotional cheerleaders. Your emotional support was priceless. And finally, I want to thank Merlin and Mikayla. My daughter, Mikayla, desperately wanted to contribute to this book. Unfortunately, her random keystrokes didn’t add to the clarity of the message, and I had to edit them from the final product. Merlin, words are inadequate to express my love and appreciation for your support in this project. I love you both.
Introduction
Project Manager’s Spotlight on Planning was written for those of you who end up managing many projects and want to know if there’s a better way. I’ve been managing projects in a variety of industries for more than 25 years. Most of the time, I had to manage 10–15 small-to-medium-sized projects simultaneously. I turned to project management books to glean hints to help calm the feeling of chaos. But I usually ended up smirking while reading and thinking to myself, “Yeah right, like I can follow all of those processes with all of my projects all of the time!” Over the years, what I’ve learned is that it’s the discipline you learn while managing large projects that becomes the foundation for managing small projects.
The best foundation you can lay for any project is to give yourself and your project team time to create a project plan. Planning is the most important step for any project. It’s the map you and your team will use to meet the expectations of the project stakeholders. I’ve found that a well-planned project requires less energy to manage than one that’s based on crisis management. In addition, when you’re pulled off to a new high-priority project, the other project can hum along to completion with minimal management. Notice I said when, not if. If you’re managing small projects, you’ll be given new priorities on a regular basis, and the only way you can ensure your other projects continue to work toward completion is to have a documented project plan that the team can use for scope reference.
The best approach to use while reading this book is to understand that I’ve given the complete best-practice approach for managing small-to-medium-sized projects. You need to know all the best practices in order to know which ones you can merge or truncate. You should review the project management plan templates in Appendix B while you read the chapters. Take notes on these pages, and revise these templates as necessary to create your project plan. Throw out what you can’t use, build on what you choose to use, and share with your project manager comrades to continue to improve all your documentation.
At first, formal project methodology can be overwhelming. I recommend to you learn and embrace the entire process. Then you’ll have the discipline engrained enough to decide which parts to keep and which parts to shelve. Keep in mind that the shelved items aren’t usually shelved forever, as they may be useful on other projects. My hope is that you can use many of these templates to quickly improve the outcome of your project.
Each project has its own challenges, yet it also has familiar aspects. Your project management confidence will grow as you gain experience and see that the project management similarities outweigh the differences. Treat almost everything as a project—Saturday chores, kitchen remodeling, and fundraising activities—and all your life’s projects will become easier to manage.
CHAPTER 1Initiating the Project Plan
So, you want to be a project manager—or maybe you already are one. Either way, you continually end up doing projects as part of your job—nothing really big, just a bunch of small-to-medium-sized projects that eat up your days. You’re most likely very good at organizing, getting things done, and managing multiple projects simultaneously. But you’re always feeling a little behind the eight ball, frustrated by the time and energy you expend on these projects. This book will help you set up a planning methodology for small-to-medium-sized projects that will give you back time and energy while you continue to get your projects done on time and on budget. In this chapter, I’ll describe the process for project initiating and introduce the project plan document. Project initiating is the steps you go through to get approval to even get started. This is when you first use resources to begin planning the project. But first, I’ll define the types of projects—both small and large—you can work on and how their sizes can put constraints on planning.
Small vs. Large Projects
How do you decide whether you have a small or large project? You could easily say this book project is a small project. It’s not just physically small, but it’s financially small and on a short schedule whereas a retrofit of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge is a large project both physically and financially, and it’s on a really long schedule. In this section, I’ll discuss some of the differences between how Project Managers (PMs) manage small projects vs. large projects so you can determine which type of projects you may have been assigned.
In many ways, managing large projects is easier than managing small projects. For large projects, the PM is usually managing one major project at a time. It’s easy to escalate and resolve issues on larger projects because the project is visible and many people understand the importance of the outcome. The team is usually dedicated to the project, and often bonuses are tied to the project’s success. Large projects usually have formal procedures and reports for project management, including a charter; a cost-benefit analysis; a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis; and a dedicated PM. With large projects, it is easier to dedicate the team’s attention to brainstorming the project’s risks and requirements, and your organization may even provide you with standard corporate benchmarks to help you plan.
In large projects, things are more defined than in small ones. Small projects seem to start with set due dates that don’t allow for project initiating and planning time, which results in project management processes that combine Initiating and Planning. What this means to a PM is that while you are collecting information and getting formal approval to initiate the project, you are also planning how you will complete it. Resource assignment and documentation tend to start in a more casual way than they would in a large project. Large projects may start with documentation such as work orders, Statements of Work (SOW), sales orders, contract addendums, or service orders. These documents are usually standard company forms that define the requirements, deliverables, and estimates for size and delivery dates for the requested work. Project management is usually not as rigorous for small projects, and the expected turnaround is usually rather short.
Small projects are also temporary, are unique, and have a start and end date that meets the formal definition of a project. However, they’re often overlooked as projects requiring project management discipline. This is because they often look repeatable because they have requirements that are similar to other projects. Projects that fall into this category are new products, new customer implementations, customer conversions, software releases, and annual events. It’s critical that you jump on the project early and initiate project planning, or else the days will slip by, the end dates don’t move, and you’ll have to manage the project in chaos.
PMs who manage small projects are responsible for juggling and managing many projects in various stages of completion. The sponsor and team members are also involved in many projects. The sponsor may be a manager who is responsible for all projects of a certain type. Consequently, priorities may conflict, especially if the team is also responsible for production support or corrective maintenance. The corporate value of these projects is usually cumulative, so it’s difficult to see the impact of missed schedules and budget overruns until year’s end. Surprisingly, the attitude from management can often be, “Planning is a waste of time since we do these kinds of projects all the time.” But this shouldn’t be the case, and it’s the job of the PM to reinforce the discipline pertaining to planning for the organization. After all, time spent planning up front will assure you a better chance of project success because the stakeholders and project team are all on the same page as far as the project goals and so on. It can potentially save you time in rework later as well as prevent the requirements from taking on a life of their own. How do you do that? Let’s start with project initiating.
Initiating a Project
The beginning of a project is when an organization decides to do something new, such as create a product, a building, or an operation. This could be triggered by a market need, a customer request, or a government regulation. Who, what, where, when, how, and how much are just the beginning questions to ask about the project. Before you start planning the project, you need to complete the initiating, the first process group of the project life cycle. In the initiating phase of the project, the PM begins to collect answers to those and many more questions prior to the project kickoff. Let’s discuss initiating in more detail.
Understanding the Initiating Process Group
In the initiating process group, someone (an individual in the organization, a group in an organization, or the organization itself) decides to do a project. How a project is initiated depends on the size of the project and your corporate process. Often there isn’t a clear line of demarcation between the initiating and planning process groups. What’s clear, however, is that a project needs to have a sponsor, some level of project definition, an approval to start, and a PM.
NOTE
If you need further explanation or a refresher on the standard project management processes, refer to Appendix A of this book.
All projects should have a sponsor: the person who ultimately has decision-making authority and who also has the responsibility over the project budget and the ability to assign resources. The sponsor can make your job easy or difficult depending on whether you can partner with them in managing the project or whether you have to spar with them on every step of the way. A strong, supportive sponsor can increase the credibility of your project and grant you authority over it.
TIP
As we all know, it isn’t always possible to partner with your project sponsor. Sometimes the two of you will clash. As the PM, you’ll need to bend to the sponsor’s style to keep the project on track, which may involve, as we say in the business, “flexibility.”
Sometimes you don’t have a single sponsor; you have a sponsor committee or a group of managers responsible for prioritizing and managing the budgets of many projects. Sponsor committees add unnecessary complexity to every project because these committees can turn a simple decision into a major event.
TIP
If you have any influence, keep away from a sponsor committee situation and recruit a specific sponsor for your project.
How do PMs get assigned to projects? They may come to you in a variety of ways, both formal and informal. A formal project assignment may be a meeting with the sponsor and/or your boss where the sponsor explains the scope and expectations of the project and reviews all the project documentation. The project might also be assigned to you in an informal manner, such as through a conversation in a hallway or over lunch in the cafeteria. It all depends on how your organization operates.
The problem with a casual method of assignment is that you don’t know your authority or responsibility over the project, and you can’t be sure that the assignment is real. The main issue with these handoffs is that they often occur after project initiating, which is in your best interest as PM to be directly involved in. Should you jump on the project during planning based on a casual conversation? Probably not. If in doubt, go to your boss and verify the assignment.
TIP
I prefer to be identified as the PM early in the project so that I can be involved during initiating. Unfortunately, the PM selection is considered a deliverable of initiating, so oftentimes a PM doesn’t enter the picture until the planning phase. My advice is to do your best to avoid being assigned to a project after initiating. Just know that sometimes you can’t avoid it.
Preparing for Planning
During initiating of a small project, you need to get into the habit of planning projects within a day or two of your assignment, because you won’t have the time or opportunity to delve into the planning of the projects once the projects have begun.
Before you start planning a project, take a few minutes for what I call “project manager reflection time.” Give yourself some time to think through what you know and expect about the project before the rest of the project noise starts. The first time you do this, it may take a couple of hours. But after you practice and fine-tune this ability, it will take mere minutes. During this time, you’ll find that you know more about the project than you thought you knew. I suspect after this exercise, you’ll also have more confidence in your PM skills.
During reflection time, consider the resources your project requires, which departments will be involved, and the time it will take to complete the project, as well as the time your organization has allotted you to complete it. Consider also the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) you may need to call on to help you with the project. And most important, consider how you’ll communicate with your project team members.
You’ll want to ask yourself dozens of questions. In the following sections, I present some sample questions to start your project reflection. I’ve also included the questions in a template format in Appendix B. As you practice this discipline and increase project management experience, you’ll begin to collect your own questions. Even though this reflection time is for your benefit, as well as for your project’s benefit, you’ll want to keep the answers to these questions to yourself, as you wouldn’t want to upset team members, stakeholders, or clients with your candor. The intent is that you may identify problems you may not want to share, such as potential sabotage or personal problems of a team member that you know may impact the project.
Process history Is there documentation from a similar project that you can use as a base? If you know of or have another similar project, immediately retrieve the documentation from the other project. Even if the other project was a disaster, start there. Expend your energy to improve the process and documentation rather than to create a new process. If there’s no process in place, think about other processes your organization has in place and how you or your colleagues have achieved success in the past. I’ll discuss options for creating processes in Chapter 7, “Defining the Quality Plan.”
Project sponsor Consider your relationship with the project sponsor and whether you’ve worked well together in the past. If you’ve worked with this sponsor before, identify their strengths and weaknesses. Is the sponsor committed to this project, or is this just another task dumped on her plate? Does your sponsor have leverage in case you need additional resources or a clarification of priorities? Do you have a sponsor committee that will make the decisions? If you don’t have a sponsor, do you need one, or do you have authority to make the necessary decisions? If you need a sponsor, whom do you want, and what is your plan to recruit one?
Resources Resources include labor, equipment, and materials. List what you know you’ll need and what you suspect you’ll need to complete the project. Is your team going to be spread across the globe? How will you have meetings? Do you need to arrange for a telephone conference line (bridgeline)? Is your team in one room or located in different departments in the building? Do you have access to videoconference equipment? Do you need to think about issues that may arise because of contracts with the government or a changing regulatory environment?
Project team Perhaps the team is already predetermined, or perhaps you can lobby to draft the team yourself. Consider whom you’d like to have as your project team as well as the members’ strengths and weaknesses. What influence or authority will you have over the group? Have you worked with the team before? If you haven’t worked with this team before, is there anyone you know well enough to get insight into how they operate? Is there a critical person required for the project? Do you have the luxury to include cross-training in preparation for the project? Cross-training is a valuable long-term strategy to relieve the stress of having only one person in the organization with the requisite skills.
Does the identified team have the skills to successfully complete the project? If not, how will you get them trained? How many hours do you think your team will need to spend on the project? Will you need several people for a week or two? Will you need one person full-time for several months with four people working part-time? I’ll discuss the project team in more detail in Chapter 4, “Drafting the Dream Team.”
Budget For small projects the expectation is often that the PM will get the project done within the predefined budget established by management. The PM is responsible to try to meet that expectation and to let management know if that isn’t possible. Consider whether you need to modify the budget or request more funding. Do you know of other projects running under budget? These projects are often measured under one cost center budget.
Project deliverables Here’s where you’ll consider project deliverables such as documentation, schedule, training, and new employees. Do you need to fit this into a standard production schedule? Can the project be done in phases? Does this project deliverable have to be perfect? Is there zero tolerance for customer impact? Do you need professional printing for collateral? Does the product have to be multilingual? Do you need to develop an easy-to-understand interface? You’re probably thinking now, “Well, of course I want a perfect, professional easy-to-use product.” But when and if the project is in trouble, can you sacrifice some of these items for one of the others? For example, in a website launch, you may be able to release the product on time and release an upgrade a month later with the improvements and still meet client expectations.
Project duration You’ll go through a more formal time-estimating effort when you get to Chapter 6, “Creating the Schedule.” However, during “PM reflection time,” you should consider how long the project will take. Remember that the duration must also include planning, coding, internal testing, and user acceptance. Your estimate of time should include time for clients to make decisions about the project. The fiscal year of the firm can make the project more complicated from a budget viewpoint. Many firms are rigid about budgeted money being spent in the correct time frame, but projects often overlap fiscal time frames. The PM may need to spend more time with the financial stakeholders to make sure everyone understands the needs of the project. Don’t let yourself get caught in the “I have plenty of time to start the project” trap. Before you know, it will be October, and you’ll have to rush the project and risk not meeting the expectations.
PM commitment How many hours of your time do you think you’ll need to spend on this project? Review your current commitments, and don’t forget to include standing meetings, performance reviews, annual budget creation, current projects, and future commitments. Do you have enough time and energy to commit to a successful completion of this project?
StakeholdersStakeholders
